Three Straight
by peroxidepest17
Summary: Companion fic to "Best of Seven": Between the sixth and seventh match, an entirely different sort of competition takes place.


**Title:** Three Straight (or Saeki Koji Doesn't Always Win at Go Only Because He's Too Busy Winning At Life)  
**Universe: **Hikaru no Go  
**Theme/Topic: **N/A  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character/Pairing/s: **SaekixOgata (no really), appearances by Touya Meijin and mentions of Morishita Shigeo  
**Warnings/Spoilers:** Randomness, crack, probably enough to be AU  
**Word Count:** 1,885  
**Su****mmary:** Companion piece to "Best of Seven"- Between the sixth and seventh match, an entirely different sort of competition takes place.  
**Dedication:** juin? It's kind of a continuation of your story anyway. LOL  
**A/N:** I don't know, I just felt like writing a crack pairing. XD  
**Disclaimer:** No harm or infringement intended.

* * *

**1.**

Saeki's phone rings at around two am, hours after his unexpected game six win against Ogata.

It's fine because he's still awake anyway, eating instant ramen out of a microwave-safe cup that he's had since primary school with Doraemon on it and absently watching late night softcore on the slightly snowy screen of his old television set.

"'ello," he murmurs into his cell, after he finds it buried somewhere under the stacks and stacks of old kifu papers he keeps scattered all around his living room. He slurps up a mouthful of curry flavored noodles in the meantime.

As he speaks he can hear a sharp intake of breath from the person on the other end of the line, but no words. At least not right away.

Saeki casually eats more noodles and braces the phone to his ear with his shoulder while he waits.

Eventually his patience is rewarded by the sound of Ogata Seiji's now familiar voice; it is familiarly rigid and annoyed as well, like Ogata has decided to talk through a set of very tightly clenched teeth to Saeki for the rest of his life. "What are you doing?" the older pro demands, without so much as a hello or how do you do. "Are you eating? It's the middle of the night."

"Yup. Ramen," Saeki responds with his mouth full, and puts his cup down after he's swallowed. "Hi."

There is another very long pause.

Saeki waits this one out too; the corners of his lips quirk upward in a smile when he pictures the pinched, very pained look that must be on Ogata's normally icy features right now.

It's enough that he even turns the TV off.

"This is Ogata," Ogata says eventually, when a whole thirty seconds has passed and neither of them has gotten anywhere one way or another in the conversation.

"Yes," Saeki replies helpfully, and leans further back into his couch, "I know."

Ogata makes an enraged noise in the back of his throat. "Well then say something, you idiot!"

"You're the one who called me, so I figured that means you're the one who's got something to say."

"I hate you," Ogata tells him, automatically. He sounds like he's on the verge of hanging up.

Saeki's smile broadens. "Yes," he says with a low chuckle, "I know that already too."

More silence.

Saeki just waits. He's not entirely sure he can beat Ogata for a title when it comes to Go, but for these kinds of things, he's fairly certain that he is the clear favorite to win, if only because the odds are completely stacked against Ogata when it comes to dealing with other human beings.

He's not wrong.

"Tomorrow," Ogata blurts eventually, when he can't take the awkward silence anymore, "there is a bar two blocks from the hotel we played at earlier. It's called Blue Water."

Saeki doesn't say anything.

Ogata keeps talking. "I will be there at eight."

He hangs up.

Saeki laughs and turns the TV back on; he thinks that he can call round one his win.

**2.**

The Blue Water Bar and Restaurant is unnecessarily large and reeks of middle aged affluence when Saeki walks into the doors a few minutes after eight the following evening, wearing a casual burgundy button up and a pair of only slightly wrinkled slacks. His hair is flopping lazily in his face with each step he takes and the maitre'd eyes him distastefully the moment he steps foot inside. Saeki just smiles back at him lopsidedly. "I'm here to meet Ogata-san," he says, before pausing to whistle in admiration when he sees the shimmering lights of a giant aquarium running all along the establishment's far wall. Inside it, thousands of tropical fish drift in and out of fake coral reefs while small crabs and translucent shellfish scurry lazily through the shiny pebbles scattered along the aquarium floor. Saeki wonders if Ogata likes fish. "Is he here already?" he asks.

"Yes, he's here," the maitre'd sniffs. "He is at his usual table…sir. Right this way."

From there Saeki gets led to a booth in the very back of the bar, where he finds Ogata situated in all of his white-suited glory, the older player hunched over a glass of bourbon and doing his best to look casually hostile about having to see Saeki here today, even though he'd been the one to invite him out in the first place.

"Your guest has arrived, Ogata-san," the maitre'd announces, professionally.

"Thank you, Tachibana-san," Ogata acknowledges, before the maitre'd bows and leaves Ogata at his usual table with an unusual guest.

Saeki thinks he gets it now; Ogata must have wanted to meet here because it's on his turf, on his terms. It's clearly an attempt to snatch the advantage back from Saeki by bringing the battle to familiar territory.

Which isn't a bad try on Ogata's part, though as far as Saeki is concerned, it won't help.

He grins and slides into the seat across from Ogata.

"Wipe that idiotic smirk off of your face," is the first thing the older man says when he sees him.

Saeki orders cold sake and some appetizers to nibble on.

"Hi," is the first thing he says to Ogata.

Ogata glares and takes a large sized chug of his drink. "Don't get the wrong idea," he tells Saeki strictly, once he's finished, "I only invited you out tonight to demand that you leave me alone from here on out. I've humored your odd behavior by acquiescing to this one meeting and now, out of gratitude for my charity, you'll have the courtesy to stop harassing me after matches. And for the rest of my life."

Saeki isn't really listening; he casually plucks Ogata's drink out of his hand and takes a sip. Wrinkles his nose. "You drink that often?" he asks.

Ogata blinks. "What is _wrong_ with you?" he demands after a beat, just a little bit louder than he'd planned.

It earns them odd looks from some of the other patrons; one of the girls who stops to stare at them giggles when she lays eyes on Saeki. He humors her with a little half smile and a wink.

Ogata mutters something unintelligible and snatches back his glass from Saeki's hands. He promptly downs the rest of it.

Stands.

"As I was saying," he declares, "our business is done now."

He moves to leave.

Saeki grins a little, because this must mean that Ogata is trying to push the win. That he feels like he's close to winning at all.

Saeki thinks that it only means Ogata's underestimated him again, because even if they're going best of seven for their Go match, Saeki plans on winning in straight sets when it comes to this.

He reaches out and catches Ogata's hand in one of his own before the older man can quite make it past him.

Ogata blinks.

Sputters.

Saeki takes the advantage back while Ogata is too busy reeling to think properly and casually tugs him down into the booth next to him.

"Were you even listening to anything I was saying at all?!" Ogata demands, once he can find the ability to form words again.

Saeki's sake arrives at that point, along with the fried squid and the chicken he ordered. "This stuff is better," he explains casually, and drapes a companionable arm around Ogata's shoulders. "Try it."

Ogata glares.

Saeki shrugs and pours himself a drink, before knocking it back and sighing in satisfaction. "That's the stuff." He smirks at Ogata. "Sure you don't want to try? Definitely better than whatever you were having just now."

"I'm leaving," Ogata says again, except this time it's much sulkier than the last. Cute almost, even.

"That's your problem," Saeki says, and pours himself another cup while he munches on squid. "You don't like trying different things."

Ogata twitches. "If," he seethes, clearly up in arms about being lectured at like this by some _kid_, "things are working fine as they are, then there is no need to _change_ them."

Saeki's eyes glitter. "But there's a possibility that they could be _better_."

When Ogata looks like he's about to argue again, Saeki takes it as his cue to seal the deal.

"Just try some," he insists, as he leans closer.

"No, leave me alone," Ogata almost snaps, except gets cut off somewhere in the middle of "No…" so that it turns into something like "Nnngh," instead, because Saeki decides to kiss him right then and there, where everyone can see.

The kiss tastes like cheap sake and spicy salt.

A few minutes later, Saeki leans back in the booth and smiles crookedly to himself, despite being left alone in the restaurant with both the tab and a bleeding, slightly swollen lower lip.

He chalks this round up as victory number two anyway.

**3.**

Morishita-sensei always tells him during their lessons that Saeki's good point as a Go player is that once he finds an advantage against an opponent, he's capable of pressing it through to the very end.

"But everything else about your game is completely average for a pro," Morishita-sensei is quick to remind him, "so your best bet is to try and find an advantage _fast_."

Saeki agrees with his teacher, and that is why, two days after the Blue Water incident, he uses Morishita-sensei's connections to talk to Touya Meijin.

"I don't know if this is a good idea entirely," Touya tells Saeki as he reluctantly slides over the piece of paper with Ogata's home address written on it, "so if he asks, I wasn't the one who gave this to you."

Saeki laughs. "If it's not an entirely good idea, shouldn't you refuse to give it to me at all?"

"My wife," Touya explains very simply, "worries about Seiji sometimes." Pause. "Sometimes I worry about him too."

Saeki understands why that might be; he pockets the slip of paper and pays for their coffee by way of thanks before driving directly to Ogata's address.

He's in his car in front of the building when he calls Ogata.

Ogata picks up and snarls, "Stop calling me."

Saeki is touched when he hears it, because it sounds like Ogata has finally given up on clenching his teeth while he talks to him now. "Hi," he says.

"I'm hanging up," Ogata tells him.

Saeki leans back in his chair. "I'm in front of your place," he says casually, like he is making a comment about how nice the weather is.

Silence.

Then, "You're lying."

"Look out your window."

On the other end, he hears footsteps, the rustling of cloth, the parting of blinds, and then, a slightly disbelieving, vaguely pained, "Oh god."

Saeki presses his advantage. "So, do you want to come down and have dinner with me, or should I just come up?"

His response is an angry sounding _click_ on the other end of the line.

He grins when he hears it and puts his seatbelt on; when Ogata appears downstairs a few minutes later—looking surly and resigned— Saeki starts the engine and declares himself the official winner of this match, by an overwhelming three straight victory.

And as it turns out, he gets to go upstairs later that night anyway.

**END**


End file.
